Disabled gamer promised Dead Space 2 fix

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 8 February, 2011

Visceral "passionate about getting fix done".

It is a story sure to warm even the coldest of hearts. Overnight Dead Space 2 creator Visceral promised to enable the re-mapping of key bindings for the PC version of its superb action horror game after a disabled gamer complained about not being able to play.

Yesterday an online petition calling on developers to enable custom button re-mapping saw an influx of signatories after disabled gamer Gareth's plight went viral.

He had asked fellow gamers for assistance on the overclockers.co.uk forum after finding he couldn't map 'walk forward' to a mouse button in Dead Space 2. Gareth, who is unable to use his hands, plays PC games using a mouse and his chin.

His forum post sparked hundreds of replies and fuelled an online petition that currently sits on over 24,000 signatories. Now US studio Visceral has answered the call.

Posting in the overclockers forum", a Visceral developer promised to patch in re-mapping in an upcoming update.

"Hi Gareth," the post reads. "I'm a developer from Visceral Games Australia, the studio responsible for the PC port of Dead Space 2. Sorry to hear about your issue - I've spoken with a few key people here and we'll do our best to include a fix for it in the next patch. In the mean time, please PM me. Cheers! Michael."

Then, in a message to Joystiq, Dead Space 2 executive producer Steve Papoutsis went one further.

"Dead Space 2 PC Players," he said. "The Dead Space 2 team is aware of the issue that disabled players are having with Dead Space 2 PC. In fact a number of folks on our team are so passionate about getting this fix done that they are currently working hard to allow players to re-map key bindings to the mouse which should help disabled players enjoy the game.

"I'd like to say I'm very proud of the people on the Dead Space 2 team for coming in today and jumping on the fix first thing. Working with such a talented and compassionate group of people is incredible and makes me proud to be a part of the Dead Space 2 team, Visceral Games, and Electronic Arts.

"In addition to the key binding fix the patch will include other fixes for PC players. Thank you for taking up the cause for our disabled players and letting us know about this problem. Once the patch is fully tested we will announce a release date."

Gareth will be delighted. Dead Space 2 is superb.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • SeesThroughAll #1 1 year ago

    Very good to hear that the developers are so keen on answering to the community on something as important as this. But hopefully, you will plan this ahead of release next time.

  • levitate #2 1 year ago

    Fantastic news! Goes to show not all developers take the piss out of their customers.

  • bad09 #3 1 year ago

    On a platform that is all about customisation it should really have been there from the start to be fair, but still good on them for not ignoring the problem and fixing it so he and other disabled gamers can play.
    Edited by bad09 at 08/02/11 @ 08:41

  • Ultrasoundwave #4 1 year ago

    Quite amazing the turnaround EA have had, cant help thinking that if this lad was trying to play an Activision game he would have been directed to their complaints department and then forgotten about.

    Well done EA.

  • dewington #5 1 year ago

    I guess they really couldn't have done anything else without looking like complete bastards, but hats off to them for making the effort.

  • MrE26 #6 1 year ago

    The video of this guy playing is amazing. Truly inspiring.

  • Korpers #7 1 year ago

    @Ultrasoundwave

    What's this got to do with the publisher (EA)? Surely your comments of adulation should be directed towards Visceral?

  • Katanax #8 1 year ago

    Awesome story. Awesome result.

    Maximum kudos to everyone at Visceral, EA, and the Dead Space team for getting the message through to those that can make this stuff happen.

    Seriously toying with the idea of a 24 hour gaming session and auction of some of my retro stuff to raise some cash for the greater cause...

  • zoidberg #9 1 year ago

    I know, it's heartwarming and everything, and I am really glad for the guy. But is noone really thinking of the BIG thing here? WHY weren't the key bindings re-mappable FROM THE START?! Isn't this a basic thing for EVERY PC game?

  • dloob #10 1 year ago

    Well done EA, your PC port of Dead Space 2 is just as half arsed a job as the first.
    Bravo for actually fixing a small part of it.

  • DirectAim #11 1 year ago

    This is what the games industry should be like!

  • McBradders #12 1 year ago

    Visceral are awesome.
    Edited by McBradders at 08/02/11 @ 10:15

  • evild_edd #13 1 year ago

    @zoidberg: not an unfair point that they should have been there from the start, and there have been a number of articles on the fact that diabled gamers still have a number of restrictions in their gaming choices.

    On the plus side, at least it shows that the matter is being taken seriously by Visceral. It might also highlight this issue once again for the industry as a whole, and remind other devs that such options need to available in future projects.....

  • RobotRocker #14 1 year ago

    It's a nice sentiment and kudos to EA for doing that but it just shows how narrow a scope studios have for not taking into account gamers with disabilities where even simple button mapping issues can affect people's enjoyment. And as far as I know, outside of Universities and Charities like Special Effect, the only commercial studio's who research and implement methods to allow disabled people to play their games are Valve and Linden Labs (Yes, That Linden Labs. They do a bloody good job of it too by the account of the late Tim Guest in his book).

    I really hope this does come up at GDC because this guy is more hardcore than any of us will be and it would be awesome if more developers think up ways to get people like him gaming.

  • OneClassyBloke #15 1 year ago

    Couldn't he have used Xpadder?

  • kangarootoo #16 1 year ago

    @zoidberg

    Its a fair point, but I'm sure in this case it was dictated by a mix of PC porting budget and plain old oversight.

    Now Visceral have learned that making this sort of thing standard is good news from a basic design point of view AND from an accessibility point of view, and future games from them won't fall into this trap. So its a good news story.


    I agree also with the wider view that accessibility should be considered as an area of its own, rather than just something that falls out of good game design practice by happy accident. Consideration for everything from non-typical controls to colour blindness should be factored in from the off, and maybe one day we will get there....

  • chrisola #17 1 year ago

    Battlefield Bad Co 2 was tricky with the radar colours for me with the colours being very similar.

    I always turn on a high contrast mode (if there is one) for games which have radars etc when you might have loads of red \ yellow \ green dots close together

  • Phily50 #18 1 year ago

    Another happy ending it seems

  • darleysam #19 1 year ago

    This is really good news, nice job Visceral :)

  • Skith666 #20 1 year ago

    I have had an absolutely lousy day at work today, I'm currently on my lunch and loaded up EG, found this story and it has genuinely made me feel better about the day.

    Good job Visceral!

  • apoc_reg #21 1 year ago

    Good stuff, and a great port!

    Just hope the extra 2 chapters can come to PC too :-(

  • Murton #22 1 year ago

    @dewington: actually they could have simply ignored it as the vast majority of publishers do. Loads of games with game breaking bugs or exclusive DLC get petitions of well over 20k and are often ignored. If anything I'd say that by doing something Visceral and EA have made everyone who has ever ignored a reasonable petition look like utter bastards.

    @skith666: it read a little like the closing segment of an episode of Russel Howard's Good News didn't it? I'm genuinely chuffed for this guy and others that share his predicament and awed by Visceral's personal response. They could have posted on their blog "we've seen the petition, we're fixing it" but they actually went to the trouble to get in touch with Gareth and tell him personally what's going on, and that's something I don't think we've ever seen in the industry before. Kudos Visceral.

    Off topic, Katanax that sounds like a great idea. If you do this be sure to get the message out on EG, I'm sure that there are a lot of people here that would love to help out with that.

  • michelle_hinn #23 1 year ago

    @RobotRocker Actually Game Accessibility has been a topic at GDC-San Francisco since 2001 and will be again this year. The disheartening thing is how few people come to the talks. That being said, through networking at the event, efforts by groups like the IGDA Game Accessibility SIG, AbleGamer, Special Effect, and others, the word is spreading! And as a accessibility advocate in the industry for 10+ years, it's GREAT to see stories like this. Sure, the controls could have been there from the start but the important part is that the developers are doing something about it NOW rather than just promising to do something for another game in the future and that never coming to fruition! So great story and kudos to the team!

  • DiamondIce #24 1 year ago

    I remember somebody writing into GameCentral when it was on Teletext saying how he wished all games had fully customisable buttons. He had problems with his hands which meant he couldn't play some games if he couldn't map the buttons how he needed.

    Why can't this option be put in as standard on all games?

  • comben #25 1 year ago

    slightly off topic. being a bit deaf i sometimes get something similiar with sub titles. its not so bad though i can still play stuff obviously, i dont often find myself with no clue what to do due to in game UI hints or things of that nature. but the amount of games ive played with no sub-titles in cut scene's or in game over the years is quite annoying at the end of the day, cut scenes especially, mostly due to not having a clue what the story is about lol. breaks the immersion a lot for me due to only hearing 'yaddayaddayadda, tank!, yaddayaddayadda, LETS DO THIS!'

    its even more annoying, considering that years ago i realised all the script and dialogue must have been converted to text at some point. :(
    Edited by comben at 09/02/11 @ 17:30